Parkinson's Disease Stopped in Animal Model

PRNewswire-USNewswire

03-13-12

KINGSTON, N.J., March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Martin Tuchman, Chairman of the Parkinson's Unity Walk and The Parkinson Alliance, announced today that funds raised through the Parkinson's community helped support the research that led to this breakthrough.

Investigators at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have reported the ability of a novel molecule CLRO1 (called a "molecular tweezer") to inhibit toxicity due to abnormal aggregation of a protein synuclein. Synuclein is widely believed to cause neuron death in human Parkinson's disease due to its tendency to form abnormal aggregations within neurons. The investigators found that CLRO1 both prevented and broke up a-synuclein aggregates.

The research, "A Novel 'Molecular Tweezer' Inhibitor of a-Synuclein Neurotoxicity in Vitro and in Vivo" appears in the current online edition (2012 February 29) of the journal Neurotherapeutics.

A great deal of the money raised by the Parkinson's organizations goes to fund ground breaking research; a level of pride is felt by the community that these dollars helped to fund this extraordinary and most promising research.

Dr. Robert E. Burke, Professor of Neurology and Pathology at Columbia University Medical Center and member of the Board of Directors of the Parkinson's Unity Walk, who did not participate in the research, stated: "This is a highly novel and promising approach aimed directly at a principal culprit in human Parkinson's disease, the protein synuclein."

About The Parkinson Alliance

The Parkinson Alliance is a Kingston, NJ-based national non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to help finance the most promising research to find the cause and cure for Parkinson's disease. It is the umbrella organization for Team Parkinson, and its signature event, the annual Parkinson's Unity Walk, to take place on Saturday, April 28 in New York's Central Park. For more information, visit www.parkinsonalliance.org.

Contact:
Carol Walton, Chief Executive Officer, The Parkinson Alliance
800-579-8440
info@parkinsonalliance.org

Parkinson Alliance

Web site: http://www.parkinsonalliance.org/

Copyright PRNewswire-USNewswire 2012

New Lyme Book by PJ Langhoff

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISSEMINATE WIDELY
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lyme, AIDS, Morgellon's Caused by GM (genetically modified) toxic wastes?

Nuclear, agricultural, and industrial wastes may have led to human diseases often denied by public health experts

A provocative expose by Midwest author PJ Langhoff suggests that Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS, Morgellon's, and other infections including those with 'no known cause' may have important ties to genetic engineering "accidents" and toxic pollutants. The new book, "The Fourth Monkey: An Untold History of the Lyme Disease Epidemic" describes the hidden history of today's most controversial illnesses, and their likely connections to highly profitable industries.

The book examines disease links to contaminated wastewaters and soils; and the implications of tainted vaccines and genetically modified (GM) microbes, insects, plants, and industrial biocides. Can biotech tools lead to human diseases including the reactivation of sleeping viruses? Are insects transmitting lab-made formulas thought "safe," and widely used by agriculture, nuclear, mining, plastics, or other industries?

Public health officials were tracking important diseases on several continents since the 1950s. However Langhoff's book presents a far less public side to academic and industrial health and science that may be negatively impacting millions of people around the world. Now available in paperback and handheld versions at: www.Amazon.com

Contact: 
Allegory Press, LLC
PO Box 444
Hustisford, Wisconsin, 53034 USA

ph/fax: 920-349-3855

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pj+langhoff
 

Fish Oil Protects Against Diseases Like Parkinson's

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2009) — Dr. Nicolas Bazan, Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Boyd Professor, and Ernest C. and Yvette C. Villere Chair of Retinal Degenerative Diseases Research at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, will present new research findings showing that an omega three fatty acid in the diet protects brain cells by preventing the misfolding of a protein resulting from a gene mutation in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Huntington's.

Read rest of article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090419133844.htm

PANDAS or Lyme - Which is it?

Researchers Publish Long Awaited Lyme Disease and PANDAS Review Despite Controversies

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/researchers-publish-long-awaited-lyme-disease-and-pandas-review-despite-controversies-140052803.html

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Neurologic tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors caused by a bacterial infection in children were once thought to occur exclusively in PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Disease Associated with Streptococcus infections). Despite ongoing controversies regarding Lyme disease and PANDAS, a recent evidence-based review by Daniel J. Cameron, MD, MPH and Hanna Rhee, MD uncovered a little known published report of a child who initially appeared to have PANDAS, but was later found to have Lyme disease. When the patient was treated with antibiotics for the bacterial infection transmitted by a tick bite, his symptoms resolved.

"Our extensive review of the literature has elucidated the mechanism with which a tick bite or sore throat may develop into neuropsychiatric disorders. TLRs (Toll-like receptors) in haplotype-variable individuals may play a role in multisystemic disease formation," states Dr. Rhee.

"We chose to publish our review paper in the International Journal of General Medicine, an online publication which provides open access to the public so that families and their physicians can download a free copy to reference at their convenience. In the context of psychiatric pathology, maintaining a differential diagnosis inclusive of an infectious etiology is what may help to save that child's life," reports co-author Dr. Cameron.

Media Contact: Hanna Rhee Hanna Rhee, MD Inc, 760-814-9229, hannarhee@...

SOURCE Hanna Rhee, MD Inc.

Lyme disease and PANDAS

Lyme disease and pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS): an overview
http://www.dovepress.com/lyme-disease-and-pediatric-autoimmune-neuropsychiatric-disorders-assoc-peer-reviewed-article-IJGM

Hanna Rhee1, Daniel J Cameron2

1Medicine, San Diego, CA, 2Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, NY, USA

Lyme disease (LD) is a complex, multisystemic illness. As the most common vector-borne disease in the United States, LD is caused by bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, with potential coinfections from agents of anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis. Persistent symptoms and clinical signs reflect multiorgan involvement with episodes of active disease and periods of remission, not sparing the coveted central nervous system. The capability of microorganisms to cause and exacerbate various neuropsychiatric pathology is also seen in pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS), a recently described disorder attributed to bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes of group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus in which neurologic tics and obsessive-compulsive disorders are sequelae of the infection. In the current overview, LD and PANDAS are juxtaposed through a review of their respective infectious etiologies, clinical presentations, mechanisms of disease development, courses of illness, and treatment options. Future directions related to immunoneuropsychiatry are also discussed.

= = = =

Supporting People Who Are Ill and Surviving It Intact

Here is a good overview of Lyme disease and its myriad symptoms, for people in support positions such as family and caretakers.

http://puttinglymebehindyou.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/supporting-people-who-are-ill-and-surviving-it-intact/

New breakthrough in use of stem cells to cure Parkinson's

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/news/a-world-first-for-stem-cell-research-1.1239881

Borrelia persists after antbiotic treatment in Monkeys

A new study by Drs. Monica Embers, Stephen Barthold and colleagues has found that the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) persist in monkeys after antibiotic treatment. It is the latest in a number of studies that have demonstrated persistent infection in animal models despite treatment.

Click to read:
http://lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk/lymepolicywonk-new-study-shows-lyme-persists-in-monkeys.html?utm_source=embers&utm_campaign=Embers+CC&utm_medium=email

Researchers discover how mutations in parkin gene cause PD

Structure of the PARK2 protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB

Parkinson's disease researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered how mutations in the parkin gene cause the disease, which afflicts at least 500,000 Americans and for which there is no cure.

The results are published in the current issue of Nature Communications. The UB findings reveal potential new drug targets for the disease as well as a screening platform for discovering new treatments that might mimic the protective functions of parkin. UB has applied for patent protection on the screening platform.

"This is the first time that human dopamine neurons have ever been generated from Parkinson's disease patients with parkin mutations," says Jian Feng, PhD, professor of physiology and biophysics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the study's lead author. ...

 To read the rest of the story, click below:

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120208/Researchers-discover-how-mutations-in-parkin-gene-cause-PD.aspx

Tai Chi helps with Parkinson's disease

Tai Chi may improve Parkinson's symptoms: research

An hour of Tai Chi twice a week can improve stability and walking ability in people with Parkinson's disease, a study has found.

To read more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9069156/Tai-Chi-may-improve-Parkinsons-symptoms-research.html